Well behaved Willig = dressage progress

I got oddly wiped out at work, was dreading more misbehavior from Willig, and knew I had some spare time with the holidays this weekend, so Willig got Monday and Tuesday off and just 20 minutes of lunging before my dressage lesson.
I was sure that finally Mike would get to see him acting up, since it seems like every day it's been something, but noooo ... he was a perfect student the entire ride.
That meant I didn't get any more tools for naughty Willig, but it also meant that we got to go back to working on our 1st and 2nd level lessons.
We started working in the middle and working our way to the scary end, which Willig remained remarkably blase about, even though J was out riding her young horse. A quick look here, a little bit of not wanting to bend to the inside there, one or two ear flicks. That was it for Willig's displeasure and anxiety.
We started with moving off the inside leg.
Here are the steps: Quiver leg; open outside hand (and shoulder!) if needed; smack with whip if being ignored.
So if I want him to bend left and leg yield right, I am keeping my right leg on for "forward", I am quivering my left leg for just a moment, I am opening my right hand and shoulder if I am being grippy and tense, and I am smacking with the whip if he doesn't respond promptly.
We tried it at a standstill, walk, then walking down the long lines, then using it in the "U-turns" of the long lines, then on a 20 meter circle. Worked like a charm.
It was a good lesson in the "overwork" that I do. I don't ask-release. I assskkkkkkkkkk.
Then we worked on a 20 meter circle on the scary end and where to start to maintain the bend past the scary side. So the scary side is 6:00. I start asking with the quivery leg at noon! WAY earlier than I have been doing! When I do that, by the time we get to 6, he is well into his routine.
This sounds so simple, but it was all fairly remarkable. I am (very slowly) catching on with more finesse to a lot of the things Mike has been telling me for months.
Then we worked on the canter. We did some collection before the canter so that he doesn't run into the canter by hurrying and falling in, but lifts up into it. This is sitting, leaning back with shoulders, tightening my stomach, and doing a big quiver with both legs while at the same time lifting my hands. I do 1-2-3 like that, and then SLIDE my outside leg back like it is a pair of scissors that is going to kick my saddle pad, and if he doesn't lift right up into it - the whip! (Which is in my outside hand for canter and walk, but inside hand for trot.)
After just a few tries, Willig caught on. (Mike says he is obviously already trained in all this stuff. An untrained horse wouldn't take just a couple times.)
Then we worked on a canter on a 10 meter circle, where I gave a similar 1-2-3 then trot, so that we would float like a feather into trot instead of plummet like a brick. In the canter, the 1-2-3 with sitting deep, leaning back, tightening my core, and lifting my hands - makes Willig's back lift up. It's like a balloon blowing up. Mike says that's collection. It's the same feeling that is there after Mike rides him, which then deflates as my butt squishes around on his back. Mike says that once I know how to do it, I'll never allow a horse to ride without it again.
Those transitions were awkward and ugly for a while, but every once in a while brilliant.
We ended with a bit of leg yield, and Mike says we need to work a bit on the bend in Willig's neck, but we can do that next.
Take Aways:
- On the 20 meter circle, it helps me to think of it as 100 tiny little leg yields. Like a centa-gon.
- Transitions. The 1-2-3 aid needs to be more obedient and crisp. Leg back for canter. When we canter in a line, speed up, slow down for 3, speed up, make a circle. All of this is so Willig starts to learn that aid does not mean "shift to trot" but "pay attention, we are about to do something different" and that is a whole world of things that we are just peeking at.
- At the canter, my legs need to be long and loose.
- Don't make him do his first "hard" moves in the scary corner. It's ok to make him think and keep him distracted, but don't set him up to fail by overwhelming him.
- Finally, getting to see Mike ride the other day, and Shannon ride on Sunday - one thing I noticed they both had in common was when the horse tried to be naughty, they nipped it right in the bud. I asked Mike my suspicion - it's not that Willig is particularly bad or naughty (I know he's not), it's just that I never rode a difficult horse before (even though I thought I did!), and I need to learn how to do this for all the future horses I'll ride. I need to learn the quick reactions and confidence that Mike and Shannon have. Mike said that's why it's useful when kids learn to put them on the tougher horses instead of the easy ones. He says he has worked with me long enough that he knows I'd get bored with a horse that didn't have Willig's potential. While that's hard to believe right this moment, I made the choice (and I took a long time making it) to keep Willig, not sweet reliable Mercury.